Discussions on community health organisation (CHO) staffing structures below ‘heads of service’ level are expected in the New Year, after IMPACT agreed arrangements for heads of service and general managers in the nine CHO areas last month. The union has told management that there can be no changes to reporting relationships until these have been agreed through talks with the union.

Talks on staffing structures finally got underway after IMPACT insisted on a forum to deal with IMPACT grades. Prior to that, no discussions had taken place – even though the CHOs were being established – because other unions had refused to participate in an all-union forum.

The latest HSE reorganisation will see six new hospital groups and nine CHOs replace former HSE structures. IMPACT is also piloting new ‘panels,’ with representation from all branches in each of the HSE hospital and community health groups. This is to ensure that all branches and members are involved in decisions that affect them, even where the HSE organisations transcend IMPACT branch structures.

Read about IMPACT’s pilot panels here.